Text of BPD Commissioner Edward Davis's UML speech

Following are prepared remarks of Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis for delivery at the University of Massachusetts Lowell commencement on Saturday morning.

Thank you, Chancellor Meehan, as always, you're more than generous in your comments when it comes to our relationship. You've been a longtime friend, and to witness the transformational changes - nearly $500 million in economic development - that have occurred here at UMass Lowell under your leadership is inspirational and remarkable. Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you also to UMass President Robert Caret, UMass Board of Trustees Chairman Henry Thomas III and other members of the Board of Trustees.

I am honored to be sitting among such distinguished company. Nancy Donahue was always a friend to me during my time here in Lowell, and is a welcome face to see whenever I return here. Mrs. Donahue, along with Elisia and Mark Saab are living examples of how you can live within a community and continue to help that community grow and develop.

I acknowledge as well, my fellow speaker Harish Hande, who literally has brought light into the lives of more than half a million people.

I also want to acknowledge today's distinguished alumni - the late Gary Mucica who was a leader in sales and marketing, as well as Bernard Shapiro, a beloved University professor, and I might add, veteran of many Boston Marathons.

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Most of all, I want to applaud the efforts of the more than 3,000 graduates seated before me, whose achievements should be a source of exuberance and pride for all of your loved ones here in attendance to support you today.

Many of you believe that when you leave this arena today with your UMass Lowell diploma in hand, your days of learning are over. Boy, do I have some sobering news for you. You're only just getting started.

If you take away nothing else from my remarks today, you must realize that every single day for the rest of your life is going to provide a learning opportunity for you. Whether you continue your studies to attain advanced degrees here at UMass Lowell, whether you embark upon a professional career, whether you decide to travel the world, or whether you start a family, you're going to spend the rest of your life learning.

And that's not a bad thing.

Chancellor Meehan was kind to me in his remarks, but I should note that he also has been one of the people I was fortunate to learn from as my career developed. He was a staunch friend of the Lowell Police Department during my time as superintendent of that police force, and he was a valued supporter during the critical growth years of this city.

As the chancellor referenced, by virtue of my position as commissioner of the Boston Police Department, I was the person that fate happened to thrust into the global spotlight because of the attacks at the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street.

Some of you here today may recognize me because you saw me on the news in the days after those attacks.

I'm here to tell you that virtually every decision I made from the moment I first learned about the explosions that Monday afternoon was based on the totality of my learned life experiences that have spanned the more than three decades since I graduated with my first college degree. It was the numerous opportunities I took advantage of to learn from people I worked alongside, or the events that occurred during my career that have became teachable moments in my life.

For example, eight years ago, I had the honor of traveling to London after that city was the victim of terrorist bombings and met with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. During that meeting, bomb experts explained to me about the components and assembly of a bomb. On Monday, April 15, shortly after 3 p.m., as I stood in the middle of the crisis on Boylston Street, I harkened back to those lessons, remembering conversations about backpack bombs.

And as I watched Boston Police Sgt. Chris Connolly conduct the painstaking and perilous task of meticulously examining the hundreds of backpacks left abandoned on Boylston Street, I was thankful I had paid attention to the lessons of London.

In 2008, I traveled to Northern Ireland and met with Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde, and asked for his insight into managing the threat of terrorism, information that I have included in all of my department's planning in subsequent years. Planning that may come in handy if the Bruins continue on their path of success.

Last July, I travelled to Amman, Jordan, and met with police chiefs from Israel, Jordan and Palestine on enhancing security and preventing crime in a changing world. Clearly, we live today in a changing world that truly affects us here at home.

But I don't want you to think you have to travel all over the world to learn lessons that can help you shape your decisions for the rest of your life. Sometimes, the greatest lessons can be learned in your own back yard.

I spent nearly 30 years of my life working here in Lowell for the Lowell Police Department, and it was here that I learned invaluable lessons about connecting with my community and paying attention to the small things that affect people's lives. I worked alongside courageous and dedicated officers who risked their lives for the safety of this community. I learned lessons on the late night shift about service to the community, I learned lessons in the Narcotics Unit about tactics and the law, and it was the beginning of a lifelong realization that police must do more than just arrest. I made many friends among the neighborhoods and business community here, and it's been terrific reconnecting with so many of them at last night's Commencement Eve celebration and here again today.

So many of the decisions I made in my career were influenced by lessons I learned from other people, including friends from high school and college, or in the formative years of my professional career. That same template is going to hold true for you as well.

Many of the relationships you have made here at UMass Lowell, both with your classmates and your professors will stay with you in one form or another for years to come.

You have had exceptional instructors during your time here at UMass Lowell, and I guarantee you that at some point in your lives, probably when you are completely not expecting it, you will hearken back to some pearl of wisdom that was imparted on you during one of your classes here.

But your education never ends. Ever.

You need to approach every single day of your life as stepping out into a global classroom, an opportunity to take something new away from the interactions you have with your loved ones, with your friends, with your co-workers.

Learning doesn't only occur in a classroom. It happens everywhere you go so keep an open mind, open to discovering new ways to see the world around you.

It's been more than a month since the attacks at the Boston Marathon, and I have continuously been asked what I learned from that afternoon and the ensuing days. The lessons were myriad.

I learned to think the unthinkable.

I learned that the most horrific of circumstances can produce the most inspirational and heroic of actions, not just by one single person, but by hundreds of them. Heroes like Boston Police Officer Tom Barrett who, seconds after the explosions, saved the life of a victim who was on fire by putting that fire out with his hands. Heroes like Jeff Bauman of Chelmsford, one of your fellow students here at UMass Lowell, who despite losing both of his legs in the explosion was able to communicate valuable information to investigators. Or heroes like Carlos Arredondo, the man you've seen in the cowboy hat that helped treat several wounded victims, who lifted Jeff Bauman into a wheelchair and rushed him to medical personnel.

Heroes like my colleague, Superintendent Billy Evans, who was by my side less than an hour after running the marathon himself, and then barely slept for days, catching an occasional nap on a cot he set up in his office, because he didn't want to step away from his officers or the operation until the attackers were caught.

I learned about how many friends I have out there when the going gets tough, thanks to the support I received from leaders like Boston Mayor Tom Menino, Governor Deval Patrick, and President Barack Obama, not to mention the legion of brother law enforcement personnel from agencies such as the FBI, the ATF, ICE, the National Guard, the U.S. Attorneys' Office, the Attorney General's Office, and our Massachusetts partners including the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the Massachusetts State Police and the police departments from Boston's neighboring towns.

I learned about the wonderful stories of the lives of four people taken from us - Martin Richard, Lu Lingzi, Krystle Campbell, and MIT Police Officer Sean Collier - names that must never be forgotten to history.

I learned about how giving and generous people can be. Not just in the more than $30 million dollars raised for the One Fund, but in the little gestures like in the case of the wait staff at the Lenox Hotel in Boston, which was commandeered for use as our operational command post. All of the staff there took all of the tips they collected during that entire week and donated them completely to the One Fund Boston.

I learned that Twitter can be your best friend to help you get the word out to a lot of people all at once during an emergency.

I learned that Starbucks decaf coffee is not your best friend when you've gone without sleep for more than 40 hours, a lesson many of you probably also realized during finals week.

I learned that when asked, the entire City of Boston, not to mention the neighboring communities of Watertown, Belmont, Cambridge and Newton, will cooperate with honor and do their part to help catch a bad guy.

Those are the kinds of lessons that emerged from this tragedy for me, and those are the ones that make me realize that like all of you, I still have so much more to learn about this world and from everyone I am surrounded by.

And I'm here to announce to you today that I'm still not done learning the lessons of that Monday afternoon.

I am proud to announce today that multiple reviews of that week are about to commence. One of them, a review of all of the city's response services, will be conducted under the leadership of Mayor Tom Menino and his office of Emergency Management. The other review I can announce today will be a best practice review, funded by our colleagues from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, the COPS Office, with the Department of Justice. I fervently hope that each of these reviews help us learn more about our emergency services and will allow us to better prepare for other large-scale events in our future.

By now, many of you have heard of the catchphrase Boston Strong that emerged as a symbol of strength not just for the city of Boston, but for everyone impacted by this tragedy.

The phrase went viral on social media sites, and has subsequently been emblazoned on tee-shirts, wristbands, electronic bulletin boards, and just about everywhere.

You may also have seen other variations on the phrase, such as Watertown Strong, for the community where the manhunt ended. Or Corcoran Strong, on behalf of the courageous Corcoran family of Lowell who had multiple victims in the attacks.

Lately the phrase has even been applied to our sports teams, like Bruins Strong. Many of you know I'm an avid follower of your champion hockey team here at UMass Lowell, and I know this year, all of you with good reason stood RiverHawk Strong.

I'm here today to remind each and every single one of you that You Are Strong.

So many of you have overcome hardships in your own lives that have not stopped you on your path to success, they just became another roadblock you had to hurdle to get here today to receive your degrees.

Hundreds of you attained those degrees while working full-time jobs. Others among you managed to fit in all your classes at the same time as you've been raising a family. This was not an easy road for so many of you.

The long hours, late nights, endless term papers and lecture halls may have come to a close with this chapter of your life, but the personal growth all of you have experienced during your time here at UMass Lowell has only served to make you stronger as a person.

All of you should proudly and loudly proclaim I Am Strong, because indeed, you are. I am confident that given the chance, all of you are capable of achieving greatness. So many of the nearly 80,000 alumni of this university are scattered to the four corners of the world but many of them continue to give back to the place where they got their start, and they stand UMass Lowell Strong.

I hope you, too, will find a way to continue to give back to this University and your community.

In closing, I would again like to thank President Caret, Chairman Thomas and the University Board of Trustees, Chancellor Meehan and all of my friends here on the stage today.

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